A cannon is generally designed to enable the delivery of a projectile over a great distance, or to enable the fired projectile to have greater armor penetration. However, when a rapid fire cannon is required, a sliding-wedge type of breech mechanism assembly is preferably used. This assembly is normally of simple construction and employs a rectangular wedge-shaped block securely seated in a slot in the breech ring, with its longitudinal axis perpendicular to the bore of the cannon tube. However, this assembly must necessarily be of a heavy section to provide the strength necessary to withstand the highly concentrated firing stresses produced therein.
In addition, the evolution of large caliber ordnance with sophisticated projectiles, firing systems, target proximity detection devices, precision arming and detonating circuits, and other electronic systems, have added to the complexity of transmitting power and data to the respective components. This problem is particularly accentuated with the limited accessibility to the breech block assembly without affecting the integrity of the ordnance.
Therefore, a need arises for a breech mechanism sliding contact assembly that provides power and data connections to the ignition, gun ground, and ammunition data link (ADL) interconnections from the breech ring to the breechblock of a gun, while still maintaining the open and close functionality of the breechblock. The need for such a breech mechanism sliding contact assembly has heretofore remained unsatisfied.